August 15, 2016

Old meters turned into artwork for SVSU art gallery exhibition

A Saginaw Valley State University professor will display his paintings, drawings and artwork made from old meters during an exhibition Monday, Aug. 22 to Wednesday, Sept. 14 in the campus’ University Art Gallery.

Michael Mosher, professor of art/communication and multimedia, will discuss his exhibition –  titled “Meter-Reader: Voltage, Amperage, Knowledge” – Thursday, Sept. 8, at 3 p.m. in the gallery.

Mosher’s artworks were completed during a 2014 sabbatical. The material makes use of the artist’s inherited collection of mid-20th century, pre-digital voltmeters and ammeters in the exhibition’s paintings, drawings, sculptural installations, photographs and copy-machine prints.

Mosher moved back to Michigan from California's Silicon Valley in 2000 because his father, Raymond F. Mosher, needed attention. The elder Mosher died that same November, having lived out his days in the Ann Arbor house he purchased in 1957 when he was appointed as a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan. In Raymond Mosher’s basement and storage shed were old meters, which his university discarded when the equipment was replaced with digital meters in the 1970s, his son said. The elder Mosher offered a loading dock manager $5 each trip to fill the trunk of his Buick with the meters.

After Michael Mosher inherited his father’s belongings — including the meters — he resolved to make art and use the equipment as a subject matter for a variety of media. To view some of these works, visit http://meter-reader.weebly.com/ or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnK21eo242k.